an invitation to submission to God Almighty

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

I bear witness to God, who there is no God but He, the Eternal,
the Holy Peace ensured Dominant,
and I bear witness that Jesus is His Prophet
—a Word sent of His Speech, a Spirit from God;
created by Him in similar likeness to that of Adam—
delivered to the Virgin Mary, the pure refuge and maidservant,
whom came to bear the Messiah Jesus.

Come to the Kingdom which submits to the Will of God Almighty, which worships the One God;
so that we may instruct you and perhaps make you understand
the certainty and accuracy of theology, its excellence & superiority,
the systematic classification of the proofs and what they imply,
and the rules governing demonstrations and what they result in,
to remove all foolishness from your soul and to cleanse your heart from what soils it,
so that you may see truth plain & evident and religion strong & clear.

Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
and mercy be upon those established on reason and clear evidence from our Lord.

I remind you of God, and to be mindful of Him.
I invite you with the invitation of truth & peace, the appeal of Islam;

I summon you with the appeal of establishing peace through
voluntary submission to the Will of the One God,
to worship and devotion accompanied by love and veneration;
a personal and direct relationship with God—
do this and you shall have peace.

Submit to God Almighty alone, as a Muslim.
Indeed, to God we belong, and to Him is our return.

God Almighty says in the Holy Qur'an, in chapter 43 verse 85:
“Glorious is the One to whom belongs the Kingdom
of the heavens and the earth and whatever lies between them.
With Him is the knowledge of the Hour; and towards Him you are to be returned.”

Categorically, belief in His Oneness

1) 		it means affirming Him as One & Unique with regards to His actions
			(such as creation, sovereignty, control, provision, giving life & death, and so on);
2) and	 	it means devoting all acts of worship, both inward & outward, in word & deed,
			to Him alone, and not worshipping anything or anyone other than God,
			no matter who else that is;
3) and  	it means affirming the Names and Attributes of Him,
		which He has affirmed for Himself or that His Prophet ﷺ affirmed,
		and denying that He has any faults and denying any shortcomings
		that He has denied Himself,
			(thus He has affirmed that there is none like unto Him,
				and denied that He bears any resemblance to His creation,
				and affirmed that He has attributes of perfection
				in a manner that befits Him, may He be glorified)

God Almighty says in the Holy Qur'an, in chapter 3 verse 64:
“Come unto an equal arrangement between us and you,
that we should serve none save God,
associating nothing with Him,
and not taking one another for Lords besides God.
And if ye decline,
then bear witness that we have submitted our will to God.”

All thanks and praise is due to God.
We seek His help and forgiveness,
and we seek refuge in God from the evil within ourselves
and the consequences of our evil deeds, and the evil of the accursed Satan.
Whoever God guides will never be led astray,
and whoever God leads astray will never find guidance.

I bear witness there is no deity and nothing worthy of worship but God Almighty,
Who is One, alone without any partners,
and I bear witness that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)
is His Servant and His Messenger.

God Almighty says in the Holy Qur'an chapter 3 verse 102:
“O believers! Be mindful of God Almighty in the way He deserves, and do not die except in a state of full submission to Him”

I say this saying of mine,
and I seek forgiveness from God for me and for you,
and for the rest of those who submit to Him.
	So ask Him for forgiveness, He is the Mighty Forgiver, the Most Merciful.

To proceed with the subject of "the naming of The Religion";
of which are several names, including 'The Natural Religion', 'the innate disposition', 'submission to the Will of God', 'the Straight way', 'the Religion of the Prophets', 'Islam'.

We affirm of the self-evident Creator what He taught us to affirm,
	and we deny what He taught us to deny.
The Creator affirmed for us, in His Book and by His Prophet ﷺ ,
that the purpose of our creation is to submit to Him and worship Him alone,
developing a relationship and understanding with Him through this complete submission,
and He ordered us to propagate this Message to others (of worship solely for the Creator alone).

In Arabic, this word for "Submitting to the Will of the Creator" is Islam,
coming from the root word for "submission" (silm, aslama) and "peace" (salaam).

In English, when someone does something, like "walk", or "breath", we add an "-er" at the end,
to say that someone is doing that thing (walker, talker); in Arabic, we add "mu-" at the beginning.
Thus someone who does submit to the Will of the Creator, is someone who does Islam,
and in Arabic is referred to as "Muslim".

Similar as no person invented walking, or breathing — no person invented Islam,
or gave a name to Islam; Muhammad ﷺ did not claim to innovate a new religion,
but announced himself as the Last Prophet, with the same religion and teaching
of all of the Prophets of the Most High, peace be upon them all.
Think about it. When a baby is born, does it decide its nature, or does it submit to its instincts?
It submits to its instincts — and Who instilled those instincts?
The Creator, the same Creator who gives us the names of what He creates and ordains.

Accordingly, we are all born Muslim,
and even the planets submit to the decree of God which sets them in motion;
the stars, plants, trees, animals are all Muslim.
To be Muslim and accept the religion of God, which was practiced and propagated by His Prophets, is indeed what God Almighty ordered us to in His Book,
and has affirmed for us in the teachings of His Prophets, peace be upon all of them.

What else should we claim ourselves to be?
The first record of the term "Christianity" in any ancient source appears first
in the writings of Ignatius, in the year 110CE.
This teaching and naming did not come from Jesus, peace be upon him,
but was named by people who came after him, and named about him.
Indeed, even in the Bible, the anonymous author claims in the book of Acts, chapter 11,
that the first use of "Christian" was long after Jesus, in the town of Antioch.
This name was not coined by the followers of Jesus, but rather by non-Christians.

Because there is no clear affirmation of this name from God or His Prophets as being The Religion, but rather is a term given by those without clear & evident authority from God Almighty —
we do not see any sense in claiming this title for ourselves.
Nor can we be sure why this anonymous author writes that the disciples allegedly went on to adopt this term which describes a religion about Jesus,
and we can not be sure what defines "Christianity", or its followers.
In its modern form and orthodoxy, Christianity teaches unreasonable doctrines
with logical problems, professing absences from what is claims to be scripture;
necessitating a certainly false premise,
an emotional preference to their claim of 'revelation' due to its conflict with reason.

In the face of so many departures from the theology of the Messiah they prefer over God,
what could we possibly reason "Christian" to mean to the Christianities?
Surely, if "Christian" means follower of Jesus, peace be upon him,
then the religion of Islam is more Christian than Christianity.

Truly, the religion of Jesus is not possibly a religion about Jesus (as "Christianity" developed into);
and likewise, Abraham certainly shared the religion of Jesus, peace be upon them both.
Abraham, peace be upon him, could not have adopted this term, for similar reasons
that he could not have adopted the term "Jew" or described himself as one.
The term "Jew" & the religion of Judaism come long after his descendants.
Therefore, Abraham, peace be upon him, could not have described himself as a Christian, or a Jew;
rather, he was one who was righteously devout
and voluntarily submitted to the Will of the One, Almighty God.

Abraham, peace be upon him, was united upon One religion, as are all Prophets of God Almighty;
that is Islam, confirmed by the final Prophet of God Almighty, Muhammad ﷺ,
and by God Almighty in His perfectly preserved Book: the Holy Qur'an, the last revelation.

Throughout history, God has sent Prophets and Messengers to different nations and tribes,
all bearing the same essential message:

God Almighty says in the Holy Qur'an chapter 7 verse 59:
“O my people! Worship God. You have no other god but Him.”

The final Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ , was sent to all of humankind
to reaffirm this message of God's oneness and to guide them back to His worship
based on the revelation he received.

This worship requires humility before the Creator and sincere submission to His Will,
which is the essential meaning of the word "Islam".

Due to clear affirmation of this name of Islam and its descriptions from God and His Prophet ﷺ
as being The Religion from God Almighty —
we do not see any sense in claiming any other title or religion for ourselves.

Thus we affirm His religion which He perfected, completed and named, "Islam",
that is described by Him as submission to His Will;
likewise, we deny falsehood, false gods, and false worship as He taught us to deny.

The human heart experiences peace and serenity when its desires and inclinations
are finally aligned in accordance with revelation.
Further perseverance in the path of worship yields a delight and sweetness whose taste
produces an attachment and yearning for the Beloved.

He alone is sufficient for us & our salvation,
He is our Lord and to Him is our final return.

This is the purpose which God has revealed He intended us in our creation,
and which He has called to all peoples—to each having sent Guides;
the Way, the Truth, the Life through which to come to Him,
which He ordained and sustains.

	For God Almighty sent His Last Prophet as a Mercy for all worlds;
	that whosoever believe & follow him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Indeed,
God Almighty says in the Holy Qur'an chapter 3 verse 85:
“If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to the Will of God Almighty), never will it be accepted of him; and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers.”

To proceed with the subject of the certainly false premise of
"it is possible for reason to conflict with the revelation,
so we must prefer one over the other";
there can be no contradiction between reason and revelation.

With the reality of competing theological claims to the Absolute,
we must rely ourselves not upon the supposed advancements of spirits,
and we must not adjudicate belief by our emotions—
only by theological reasoning may the truth be exalted & confirmed,
with falsehood effaced and made to perish.

While the innate emotional belief in the Creator is natural in every human being,
the emotions are a path which neither leads to trustworthy results, nor to stability, if left alone.
We are compelled, then, not to leave emotions as the only way to belief.

We must rely ourselves upon demonstration by the mind with the emotions.
Reason leads to understanding revelation, though it can never take its place;
both are together, performing different roles.
It is necessary to ascertain belief and the fullness of faith by thinking, study, and contemplation—
to ponder, and use the rational mind as the governance of belief—
excellence which must, by God's Mercy and Guidance, lead to assured conviction and pure faith.

Sincerity in adopting belief— be it or be it not belief from our forefathers—
is fully acquired through investigation & scrutiny, not blind imitation.
This directing of the intellectual faculties as the arbitrator of the emotions
is the certain way to personal confidence in belief.
We confirm that revelation is true because of our faculties (including our reasoning);
indeed, revelation commands the utilisation of reason.

Consider that belief is an individual's affirmation of an existence,
which is either true or false, and corroborated through some justification;
credulity is believing without evidence;
delusion is affirmation in light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary;
and knowledge is a true, justified & certain belief that matches reality.

If one is certain in a belief, and this belief is true in reality, then this belief is knowledge.
As an ideal of revelation, certainty of faith does not arise as an expression of the whole individual
except with voluntary submission,
and the necessity of its reasoning & intellect in the attaining of understanding.

Such faith is without doubt, and with no intellectual justification in abandoning;
we are faced only with the choice of surrendering to the Truth,
or being in denial of the empirically evident.

Truly,
God Almighty says in the Holy Qur'an chapter 47 verse 14:
“Can those ˹believers˺ who stand on clear proof from their Lord be like those whose evil deeds are made appealing to them and ˹only˺ follow their desires?”

We ask God to turn our hearts favourably to Him and to His religion. Indeed, He is the Turner of Hearts.
And God Almighty certainly knows best.